“What? But...... Brother, you can’t go to the Alliance......”

I could not bring myself to say the rest.

Yeon Ryang seemed to understand the words I had swallowed and laughed softly.

“I’m going with you. If I send you alone, you definitely won’t go.”

“No. I don’t want to go even if we go together. I don’t want you anywhere near Wuhan.”

“It’s better if we go together. Even if you go alone, those orthodox faction bastards will use you to draw me out. That young Taoist seemed convinced you’d been deceived by me. They must be looking for me too.”

When I worked my lips, unable to think of anything to say, Yeon Ryang asked as if coaxing me,

“Sohae, you don’t want to be mistaken for a member of the Sect and become a public enemy of the martial world, do you?”

“Of course not.”

“Nothing good will come of making an enemy of the Alliance. Especially not if you’re a martial artist of the orthodox side. Let’s settle it before it gets any later. You were pursued because of me, so I should put an end to it.”

“What are you planning to do at the Alliance? If your identity is exposed, you might really never get out of the prison cells. They’ll torture you until they get the information they want.”

“That’s why I’m thinking of finding Beopgong and taking him with us.”

“The one you said was your friend? Why him?”

“I’m going to use him as a guarantor.”

I blinked at the completely unexpected idea.

Did he just say he was going to use a Shaolin disciple as a Demonic Sect member’s guarantor?

He was not merely fearless. His liver had climbed right out of his body.

“Are you serious? You know that if you’re caught, both of you die, right?”

“That bastard will find it amusing. It’s a chance to screw over the Martial Alliance, so the moment he hears it, he’ll get excited and follow us.”

“Uh, right......”

I could not tell whether I should be glad he had an insane friend or feel sorry for him for somehow befriending someone like that.

In any case, it was not a bad idea. They would not handle a martial artist guaranteed by the Shaolin abbot’s direct disciple carelessly.

“That all sounds fine, but where are we supposed to find that monk?”

At my question, Yeon Ryang let out a deep sigh.

“To tell you the truth, I’m worried about that too. If only because of that bastard, we’ll have to stop by Hao Gate.”

“But the time for you to receive the antidote has already passed. Won’t that look suspicious?”

“They might think I tried to run and failed, so I came late, but they won’t imagine I got rid of the parasite entirely. Cutting ties immediately would draw more suspicion, so I should gradually reduce the number of times I go to receive the antidote.”

“Are you planning to fake your death at the right time?”

“Wouldn’t that be best? And the Sect gives me fairly decent travel expenses. Dropping by now and then to collect pocket money might not be bad.”

“Then we have to go.”

When I changed my tune at once, Yeon Ryang chuckled.

“My sister really likes money.”

“The more money there is, the better, Brother.”

“Yes, yes. It’s a good thing to have such clear values in life.”

Yeon Ryang shrugged as if he understood everything.

“At any rate, I’ll narrow down the places where Beopgong might be. If we wander wherever our feet take us, we’ll run into him eventually, won’t we?”

Yeon Ryang’s awkward smile gradually darkened. After parting his lips a few times, he apologized weakly.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”

“Don’t say strange things. You’re the one who got dragged in. If it hadn’t been for me in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any traces left.”

I firmly rejected his words, but Yeon Ryang only smiled faintly without answering. He looked like he was blaming himself.

It made me a little sad.

Becoming a member of the Demonic Sect and learning demonic arts had never been what Yeon Ryang wanted.

I was like that at that age too. I didn’t want to die. Every day, I wished someone, anyone, would appear and help me not die.

He had simply survived, desperately, in a place no different from hell.

I remembered him from some time ago, calmly saying that he had wanted to live, and my throat tightened.

After choosing my words for a long time, I struggled to call him.

“Brother.”

“I’m listening.”

“I...... think people can change their lives through the choices they make.”

“......”

“It doesn’t matter what choices you made before or what kind of life you lived. What matters is that you chose to save me. From that moment on, you were a good person to me.”

“Ahaha.”

Yeon Ryang laughed with a breathless sound.

“Sohae, if you knew how many people I’ve killed, you wouldn’t be able to say that. When I hear something like that, it makes me feel like I have to become a good person even if I have to force myself.”

“No. You’re already a good person.”

Because he was a warm-hearted person who had come back because he was worried about me standing alone.

Because he was someone who could throw away his own life simply because something was right.

“So stop thinking strange thoughts and try to remember where that fake monk often goes. Is there anywhere that comes to mind?”

“All right. Fine. I won’t say anything strange, so you stop worrying too, Sohae.”

At my scolding, Yeon Ryang put on a slick expression.

Then he began drawing on the ground. It was a fairly detailed map of the Central Plains.

“Let’s see...... That fake monk won’t go anywhere near Shaolin. He won’t be around Mount Song. In my opinion, it’s one of three places: Longzhong, Luoyang, or Bozhou.”

After checking the regions Yeon Ryang circled, I frowned. Even after thinking for a while, it was hard to figure out what the three places had in common.

“Aren’t your guesses all over the place, Brother?”

“There are reasons for them. If he ran out of money and went to raid someone else’s wine cellar, he’ll have gone to the Zhuge Clan in Longzhong. That bastard is close to the Zhuge Heir Apparent, so he often stays there as a guest retainer.”

“He raids other people’s wine cellars? I thought he was a monk.”

“I told you that bastard isn’t normal. You can’t expect common sense from a fake monk.”

“That person is even worse than you, Brother......”

“If he’s obsessed with Dukang liquor right now, he’ll be in Luoyang. If it’s neither of those, there’s a high chance he’s in Bozhou. Beopgong’s favorite liquor is Gujinggong Liquor. So it’ll be one of the three.”

“It sounds like complete nonsense, but somehow it’s weirdly plausible. That’s really strange.”

I found myself wondering what kind of person this monk named Beopgong was.

A monk was going on a famous-liquor pilgrimage? From what I had heard, he sounded like someone who should have been expelled long ago. Was it really all right to receive help from him? Would this not make things even more tangled?

“Brother. Is that monk even still part of Shaolin? We won’t be trying to remove one lump and end up growing another, will we?”

“For now? He’s learned seven of Shaolin’s Seventy-Two Arts, when even mastering one properly is said to be difficult. Even if Shaolin wants to cast him out, they won’t be able to do it carelessly.”

“Mm. ‘For now’ means it sounds like he’ll be expelled soon. I don’t trust that monk. Wouldn’t it be better for you to take Dissolving-Power Poison and pretend you don’t have internal energy?”

At that, Yeon Ryang twisted his mouth with a sorrowful expression.

“Sohae...... Your brother ate enough poison this past month to last a lifetime...... Stop feeding me now......”

He looked as if he might really cry if I said I would feed him more, so I could not even suggest it further and waved my hand.

“All right, all right, so calm down. I won’t mention Dissolving-Power Poison.”

Only then did Yeon Ryang relax his expression and continue, bracing a hand on the ground.

“Since we’re around here, if we go north, we’ll reach Lu’an. It would be best to stop by the Hao Gate Lu’an branch, gather information, and move after that.”

I stroked my chin and sank into thought.

The Hao Gate Lu’an branch...... Did every large city have a branch?

How many branches were there across the Central Plains? I felt like I had heard there were over a hundred Beggars’ Union branch lodges. Would it be similar?

It seemed like a good idea to grasp Hao Gate’s locations while I had the chance. Someday, I would likely need to find Hao Gate myself.

“Let’s think a little more about when to leave. Are you done maintaining the throwing knives?”

“Yeah. They’ve all been oiled.”

At that, Yeon Ryang raised the corner of his mouth and lightly shook the wooden stick in his hand.

“Then you should try throwing them. Sister, it’s about time you warmed up too.”

*****

Tap!

The wooden stick sliced quickly through the air and lightly struck the crown of my head. A stinging pain spread at once.

After placing another lump on top of the lump already on my head, Yeon Ryang chuckled teasingly.

“Oh dear. Our sister died again.”

I rubbed the top of my head and glared at Yeon Ryang.

“Again.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to stop here for today? You’ve already died twelve times.”

“Again. I could see the sword path a little this time.”

“What’s the point of seeing the sword path? Sohae, you keep letting swordsmen close the distance. You need to stop them from getting close in the first place.”

Yeon Ryang shrugged and shook his head. I narrowed my eyes.

“I know that too! I know, but how am I supposed to keep distance when you charge at me like a bull? I blink once, and you’re already in front of me.”

“Haha, you still have to adapt. Sister. The world is full of martial artists faster than me.”

Mm. He had a point.

“That’s true. Taoist Jinseong was incredibly fast too. Even though it was obvious he was deliberately going easy on me, I was out of breath.”

“That young Taoist was quite something. You said he was twenty, but that wasn’t sharpness someone his age should be able to emit.”

“I guess there’s a reason he’s the disciple of the Number One Sword Under Heaven. When I blocked the Pine-Pattern Ancient Sword, it was a little frightening. Goosebumps rose all over me.”

“Don’t lose heart, sister! You’re the Poison King’s disciple too!”

“What are you talking about! I’m not losing heart!”

“Yes. That’s a very good attitude. For a martial artist, momentum is everything.”

Yeon Ryang, who had been grinning as he joked, tapped the ground with the wooden stick.

“It’s best not to let them close the distance in the first place, but if the distance has already been closed...... there are three methods.”

“Three methods?”

“First. If you feel that the opponent is weaker than you, or that they’re careless, break their weapon.”

“Huh? Break their weapon?”

“You’re strong, sister. I saw you snap a sword blade with your bare hands before. Wanderers will lose their will to fight the moment they lose their weapon.”

I remembered the bandits who had dropped to their knees the moment I broke a sword blade and nodded.

“What’s the second?”

“It’s simple. Widen the distance again.”

“......Brother. If I could do that, I wouldn’t have a lump on my head.”

“Make the opponent retreat first. A martial artist’s center is in the lower body. No matter what, aim for the legs and disrupt the sword path. If you paralyze one leg with your poison, they’ll retreat on their own.”

“Ooh.”

So that was how.

I clapped in admiration.

A trick I would have cursed as underhanded in the past now felt like wise military strategy.

That’s right. Poison isn’t underhanded. It’s my weapon, so what are you going to do about it? If you have a complaint, you should have been born with a Myriad-Poison-Immune Body.

“The final method is to run away. It would be even better if you blocked their vision with poison first and then ran.”

“Run away?”

“The orthodox faction bastards may act noble and call it cowardly, but what matters isn’t fighting fair and square. It’s surviving.”

Yeon Ryang’s eyes, which had been explaining slowly, sank low.

“So if something happens, run away even if you have to do it alone, Sohae.”